Asteron Life announce enhancements across Personal and Business Insurance

Asteron Life has announced a suite of enhancements across their Personal and Business Insurance products. All enhancements apply to in-force policies issued after August 2004 and will apply to claimable events from 5 June 2025.

Some of the key enhancements include:

• New support benefits. An example is the new Family Member Accommodation & Transport Benefit which offers up to $300/day for accommodation and $2,500 in travel expenses reimbursed to support a family member during treatment.

• Life Cover with accelerated Trauma Recovery Cover conversion benefit

• Updated definition for major organ transplant, including widening the scope of eligible procedures.

• Updated definition for diabetes, including reducing the threshold for claims from two complications to one.

• New Rehabilitation and retraining Benefit for Business Insurance customers - increased support of return-to-work efforts by reimbursing rehabilitation and retraining costs.

• Increased flexibility to increase cover in line with life or business changes that happen to customers.

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28 May 2025 - Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Hon Scott Simpson, April 2025 diary released with the following potential financial services sector related meetings noted:

• 2 Apr 2025 – MEET: Kiwibank (Steve Juravich)

• 3 Apr 2025 – MEET: Financial Ombudsman (Susan Taylor, Jane Meares)

• 3 Apr 2025 – MEET: Commerce Commission Review Panel (Paula Rebstock,Allan Fels, David Hunt)

• 3 Apr 2025 – MEET: Chair of ACC Board (Dr Tracey Batten)

• 7 Apr 2025 - ATTEND: Financial Services Council Roundtable (invited guests)

• 8 Apr 2025 – MEET: ACC Board (ACC Board)

• 10 Apr 2025 – MEET: FMA (Samantha Barrass)

• 14 Apr 2025 -MEET: Commerce Commission (Commerce Commission)

• 15 Apr 2025 – MEET: ACC Officials (ACC, MBIE, Treasury Officials)

• 15 Apr 2025 – MEET: MBIE Officials (MBIE Officials)

• 17 Apr 2025 – MEET: Chair & CE of ACC (Dr Tracey Batten & Megan Main)

• 23 Apr 2025 -MEET: MBIE Officials (MBIE Officials)

• 29 Apr 2025 – SPEAK: Financial Services Leaders Roundtable (Invited Guests)

• 29 Apr 2025 – MEET: ACC Board Chair (Dr Tracey Batten)

• 30 Apr 2025 – MEET: AIA (Nick Stanhope)

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2025-05/Proactive%20Diary%20Release%20Simpson%20Apr%202025.pdf

29 May 2025 - The FMA releases Good Cents: Kiwis on savings and debt research, which looks into New Zealanders' attitudes and behaviours towards savings, debt reduction, and financial guidance. https://www.fma.govt.nz/news/all-releases/media-releases/good-cents-kiwis-on-savings-and-debt-research/

Monsters in March off to a great start

We’ve kicked off our Monsters in March event series, holding the first session in Remuera on 18 March and the second session in Christchurch on 20 March. Thanks to the 150+ advisers that showed up to hear about personal insurance, business insurance or KiwiSaver advice. And thank you to all of our sponsors and speakers for making it happen.

Here’s a few photos from the events so far.

We’ll be holding a last on the North Shore in Auckland on 25 March – hope to see you there!

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Munich Re delve into AI’s impact on Healthcare

As part of Munich Re’s Life Science Report, they have investigated the projected impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on healthcare, from disease prevention to diagnosis to treatment as well as the implications for efficiency gains.

While the news is mostly good (improved mortality, better prevention, earlier diagnoses, individualised therapies), it does create some challenges for life and health insurers. With earlier diagnoses and the emergence of new disease classifications, critical illness insurance products will need continuous updating. Claims management and policy development will become more complex, as genetic and molecular diagnosis becomes more routine, requiring a higher level of medical expertise. Overdiagnosis (the detection of diseases that don’t impact on mortality and/or morbidity) and antiselection may become problematic.

AI will also create opportunities for insurers. Insights from accessing and analysing vast datasets including electronic health records, imaging and other biomedical sources will transform the understanding of the root causes of disease and in turn allow underwriting to become more accurate and sophisticated. Wellness interventions will be able to be better targeted and increase in scope and effectiveness.

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Partners Life appoints new Chief Financial Officer

Mark Schollum has been appointed as Partners Life's new chief financial officer. Schollum is currently Chief Financial Officer at Chubb Life New Zealand and has held a variety of roles in the life insurance industry in New Zealand and internationally. He is qualified as a Chartered Accountant and is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors. Schollum will start his new role in March next year.

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Resolution Life purchased by Nippon Life

Nippon Life Insurance Company, a Japan-based insurer, is set to acquire full ownership of Resolution Life Australasia and the remaining 20% stake in MLC Life Insurance currently held by National Australia Bank.

MLC Life Insurance and Resolution Life Australasia will merge under a new brand, Acenda. The merger is expected to be finalised in the second half of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals. MLC Life Insurance, will begin the transition to the Acenda brand from December 2024, targeting late 2025 to complete the transition.  Once the merger is complete, Resolution Life Australasia will move to the Acenda brand in Australia, with the intention to transition the Resolution New Zealand business to the Acenda brand ‘in due course’.

Resolution Life Australasia is currently in the process of acquiring Asteron Life, Suncorp Group’s New Zealand life insurance business, which will operate as a standalone entity post-acquisition.

Tim Tez, CEO of Resolution Life Australasia, said

“New Zealand remains an important market for both Resolution Life Australasia and Nippon Life. [The] announcement will not impact our focus on completing the acquisition of Asteron Life and our support of the business’ current strategic growth agenda.”

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28 Nov 2024 - Kiwibank has been fined $1.5 million after pleading guilty to 21 breaches of the Fair Trading Act, resulting in overcharges to 35,000 customers totaling $6.8 million. https://comcom.govt.nz/news-and-media/media-releases/2024/systemic-breaches-of-consumer-law-lead-to-$1.5million-fine-for-kiwibank

28 Nov 2024 - The FMA will publish its first climate-related disclosures insights report in early December. It will include findings and areas for improvement based on the reviews of climate statements prepared for reporting periods ended between 31 December 2023 – 31 March 2024. The FMA will be running webinars on Tuesday 10 and Thursday 12 December to discuss the report and answer questions.

28 Nov 2024 - Following consultation in July on proposed guidance for references to climate statements in disclosure documents, the FMA have decided to pause work on this project. https://www.fma.govt.nz/assets/Exemption/Submissions-report-CRD-PDS-proposed-guidance.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=FMA%20UPDATE%20NOVEMBER%202024&utm_content=FMA%20UPDATE%20NOVEMBER%202024+CID_ba79ea243bfbf23eb5e123188c21af00&utm_source=FMA%20Campaign%20Monitor%20Emails&utm_term=available%20here

28 Nov 2024 - The FMA release Navigating KiwiSaver Episode 4: KiwiSaver fees. https://www.fma.govt.nz/library/podcast/navigating-kiwisaver-episode-4/

28 Nov 2024 - APRA has released its quarterly private health insurance publication for the September 2024 quarter. https://www.apra.gov.au/news-and-publications/apra-releases-quarterly-private-health-insurance-statistics-for-september-6

29 Nov 2024 - The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has confirmed that Privacy week 2025 will run from the 12-16 May 2025, with the theme "Privacy on Purpose". https://us18.campaign-archive.com/?u=5b61763783257eac3d863f400&id=e5ffb9f447

2 Dec 2024 - The FMA have released the results of its first Consumer Confidence Survey. Findings included 98% of kiwis have at least one banking product; credit card ownership is down 3% while buy-now-pay-later is up 5%; 86% of all kiwis have at least one insurance product; 85% of NZers have at least one investment product. https://www.fma.govt.nz/news/all-releases/media-releases/inaugural-consumer-confidence-survey/

Fidelity Life announce incoming Board Chair

Fidelity Life has announced that Scott Pickering will take up the reins as chair of its Board of Directors, effective 1 January 2025. Pickering joined the Fidelity Life board in July this year and holds other roles on boards at Evolution Healthcare, Kiwibank, Insurance Australia Group, IAG New Zealand, Engage Consulting and Bowls New Zealand as well as being an advisor to HealthNow and Bain & Co.

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Kiwibank has featured in the news a lot recently, from the Commerce Commission’s recommendation that the Government should consider what is necessary to make Kiwibank a disruptive competitor, to the release of Kiwibank’s latest financial results.

Kiwibank posted a record $202 million after-tax profit for the year to June 30 2024, up 15% from the previous year. Kiwibank were able to grow their lending book by 9.3% to $32.4 billion. Impressively, home lending grew 2.7 times faster than the market and business lending grew 3 times faster than the market. Deposits increased by $2.4 billion, growing the deposit book by 9.4% to $28.2 billion

Steve Jurkovich, Kiwibank CEO, has said a $500 million capital infusion would

“give us a lot of runway to keep growing as fast as we are now, which is 9.5%, 10% [per annum], which is pretty large gains. That sort of investment over the next three, four years would give good runway.”

"With the right support and delivery of the right business plan and right initiatives, I think we could double our size in five years.”

Jurkovich has also said it may not be essential for the bank to remain 100% NZ owned, pointing to other examples of successful majority owned businesses like Air New Zealand. Jurkovich cautions that any requirement to pay sizeable dividends could impact their ability to grow, given that capital growth to date has mainly been via retained earnings.

Mortgage advisers now account for around 35% of Kiwibank’s total mortgage book, having originated 71% of Kiwibank home loans this year. Kiwibank’s accredited advisers have grown to about 1,000 now, up from 250 at June 30, 2022.

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